A good backlink is a link that sends traffic to your website. No matter if the link is dofollow, nofollow or a redirect, as long as it sends new visitors to your website, the link is good. Now the million dollar question is how do you earn good backlinks? Keep reading because I will show you several ways you can build high quality links to your website.

Why you need good backlinks

Asides from sending direct traffic, backlinks will help you achieve better rankings in search engines. However, if you will build bad backlinks, you will end up being penalized, and lose most of your organic traffic. When you build backlinks, you have to be very cautious not to leave footprints, and make the links look natural. I recommend you to read my previous article: 18 types of backlinks violating Google’s guidelines.

Backlinks can also help you create business relationships with other people in your niche.

How to build or earn backlinks

1. The very first thing to start is to create a good internal linking system. An internal link is a link from one of your website’s page, to another page of your site. Internal links can help visitors navigate your site easily.

This is one way, to build backlinks to your most important articles.

2. Write guest posts for popular websites in your niche. No, guest posting is not dead, not even close. I demonstrated this a few weeks ago, here. As long as you will write awesome content for reputable websites, you are safe. If you want to build backlinks using guest posts, these are a few tips you should consider:

Don’t write only for the purpose of getting a dofollow backlink. Remember the rule that a link is good when it sends traffic.Sometimes, websites that use nofollow links for guest authors will be more valuable for your business.

Always link to your social media accounts in the author bio, to get more followers and engagement.

Write fantastic content that gets hundreds of shares, and you will be invited to write again.

Share and promote the articles you write for other websites.

So, how do you find guest posting opportunities? You have three options.

The first one is to check if the most important websites in your niche are accepting guest contributors. If they do, you can send your request to become an author.

The second option is to look for websites that accept such contributors, using the following footprints in Google:“Write for us + keyword”
“Guest post by + keyword”
“Guest contributor + keyword”
“Guest author + keyword”
inurl: guest-post-guidelines
inurl: guest-posts
inurl: write-for-us

And the third option is to spy your competitors that are writing guest posts on other websites. The easiest way to do this, is to use Monitor Backlinks. Once logged in to your account, and connected your domain with Google Analytics, you can add your competitor’s whose strategy you would like to spy.

Monitor Backlinks will show you all the backlinks your competitors have, and it will send you weekly emails with all the new links they have earned or built. For instance, if your competitor is a contributor on HuffingtonPost, you can try to become one as well.

3. Another great way to build good white-hat backlinks is to use the broken links method. This is how this works.

You search for websites that have resource pages, and posts that contain broken links.

To easily identify broken links, you can use the Chrome plugin called “Check My Links”.

Once identified such links, contact the webmaster and let him know that they are linking to websites or pages that do not exist anymore. Suggest him to replace the broken links with some other good resources, and don’t forget to include your website.

4. Spy your competitor’s strategy to build backlinks. If your competitors are ranking higher than you in search engines, it means that they have better backlinks than your website. Find their best backlinks and try to replicate them. From your competitor’s page on Monitor Backlinks, check the links with the highest Ahrefs rating.

5. Build backlinks by using forums and blog comments. You can become an authority in your niche, by using forums, and engaging with others with blog comments. The key to become successful is to be present everywhere.

However, you don’t have to start spamming webmasters with useless blog comments. Before posting any comment, read the article and always provide your useful insights. If your comment adds value, you might be rewarded with a link, and you can also make some new friends.

The smart way to leave a blog comment would be to link to your personal social media account, instead of your website’s homepage. This way people can easily interact with you.

Same tips are available for forums. Interact with others and prove that you are worthy of following.

6. Create links on Q&A platforms. We all have questions, and we are all looking for answers. The best places to look for people that have questions are Quora and Yahoo Answers. Just as you would do with blog comments, always add value to the conversation and link only to good resources.

Conclusion

To get more traffic, you need backlinks. Links can drive traffic and help you rank higher in search engines.

Always check what works best for your competitors and try to replicate their strategy. You can become an authority in your niche by being helpful and writing good content.

Written By

I am an inbound marketer. I enjoy doing SEO and recovering websites from Google penalties. I also do social media, conversion rate optimization and more.
You can connect with me on Twitter or Google Plus.

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Comments

21 Comments

I too agree that Guest Posting is not dead, the thing that makes is less effective is the low content quality. Although, Guest posting is a way of getting more audience through competitor blogs and sites provided your post have something valuable for the readers.

The checklist you mentioned in the post to consider while posting, such as social media profiles in bio section instead of site links is what I found a genuine way for writing a good bio section.

Previously I used to place site links with keywords in author bio section too. But, from now on, I think placing social profiles such as FB profile link, Twitter account link would be great for biography section.

And, thanks for sharing the tip for finding Guest post opportunities by those search tips.

Well, there is no doubt that back links should be earned naturally.
Any idea out of this is not an option. It becomes necessary for the
webmaster to follow steps that guarantee good back links.

Having said that, the steps shared in this article are helpful. Much
more is the fact that one can actually use a tool like the Monitor
Backlinks to spy on the competition.
This is a good idea as it will help the blogger in making valuable link building decision!

Spy your competitor’s strategy to build backlinks. This strategy will definitely work. Check the most likes or tweets article of your competitor, then replicate it but make it much better, then outreach to those people that tweets and like their article. If your article is great definitely they will like it or tweet it.

We are constantly writing optimised content then we have a large list of high ranking blogs to create links, link building for high value keywords can be never ending. You are so right on the unfollow and follow links,. Great article

I am new in seo and creating backlink. I got some awesome way to improve the backlink as well as usage of competitor website . Your suggestion like adding the competitor site in google analytic is very affecting way to track the site.I have some question if i have educational portal what is the best way to create good back link.